warmetalfandomcom-20200214-history
User blog:Refiner/Over the Road with Refiner
I know that I am not so active here as I'd like to be, nor am I able to be as active in the games. I started down a path to a new career over a year ago when I started work as a security officer working 12 hour shifts. My desktop got fried from the residual charge left over from a Texas thunderstorm in February 2012 shortly after I'd received my first paycheck and had purchased a 3TB hard drive. Thankfullly, I'd moved every data file from my computer to the hard drive before the storm so I lost none of my important files. Things I'd stored online would still be available to me as I got a little internet access from time to time. My career goal when I started the security job was to save money to pay for Professional Driving School. After almost 5 months, and some inquiries to the Austin Community College, I spoke with the Continuing Education adviser for the School and discovered that I was eligible for financial aid through the Veterans Administration. My last day as a security officer ended on July 1, 2012 at 0600 and my first day as a student was July 2 at 0600. I graduated in August with my CDL and proceeded to orientation with a company I'd received a prehire from. The company didn't have all the i's dotted and t's crossed for me and never completed the process, let alone tell me what they intended. After a week of calling and getting no answers, I put applications in all over the place using my mobile phone's internet browser and 4g data. One company called me back within 2 minutes (they claim within 5 minutes, but this was really fast), and asked when I wanted to start my career. I said "as soon as possible. After a month of riding in a big truck with a good friend I was in another orientation and hired. It's been over 6 months with this company, my friend has since joined me to drive as a team, and things have been getting better for me. With the purchased of a new laptop a couple months ago, I also signed up for a WiFi hotspot to take along for those times when I can access its higher speed internet connection and save a little on my phone's data. Today I'm actually in a location where my phone is on data roam (100MB sucks and it's used up for the month already) and the hotspot is a solid green light! I still bump up against the 5GB data on my phone before the end of the month, however, it is close to the end of the month when it happens and the data is then throttled until the new cycle begins. My first truck as a solo driver was a 2009 Volvo with over 300,000 miles on it. I was in it for about a month until it went into a dealership shop for engine oil pressure issues. Something in the system was gumming up the oil filters and it had just received a new one about 3 weeks earlier. After that I drove a 2007 Volvo that have over 500,000 miles. This one had a second bunk in it but I didnt use it until I had a couple rejected cases I didn't want to move about the truck every time I shut down for my sleep cycle. I dropped that bunk down, puches the cases up there and belted the safety net across the boxes. From then on I used the bunk to hold a few odd things, and I found that it kept the space I slept in easier to keep warm in the winter months by having it down. Then my team mate joined me and I had to clear it out in order to use the bunk. Then the turbos started slipping on a load we were hauling from Denver to Phoenix. We took the truck to the main terminal and put it in the shop. The next day our Driver Manager called and said to head over to Tractor Assignment for a new truck. We were handed the keys to a 2014 Freightliner Cascadia with 1367 miles on it. While it has more room in the sleeper, the cabinets are definitely organized differently so we had to shuffle things about to get things located where we want them. We've been in the truck 3 weeks and haven't had a lick of trouble with it. The loads we get take us to moat of the 48 contiguous states, so I may be passing by you and you wouldn't even know it. Perhaps I brought something to your town that you purchased? Everything you can tangibly purchase is hauled on a truck at some point. It very well could be my truck bringing it to a store near you. The only downside to my new career is the lack of time to actually stop and update the wikia on a regular basis or play the games to keep abreast of the new content. However I am still available and I do drop in to see how things are going here. Check out my contact info for getting ahold of me outside the wiki if you need any assistance. Until next time, stay safe out there in whatever you do. Category:Blog posts